OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)
Tagline: 3 Casinos. 11 Guys. 150 Million Bucks. Ready To Win Big?
(Heist, Thriller) [PG-13]
I'm gonna get out of the car and I'm gonna drop you like third-period French.
Just from the get-go, I am going to have a little fun with these big stars “most famous roles”. In this one Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney probably best known for RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES) decides that getting out of prison is pretty boring, so he’s going to rob 3 casino’s (The Bellagio, The Mirage, and the MGM Grand) at one time to pull off the biggest heist in history. To do that he is going to need like 11 other people to help. So he’s gonna get Frank Catton (played by the late great Bernie Mac), Rusty Ryan (played by Brad Pitt probably best known for being the voice of Metro Man from MEGAMIND), Reuben Tishkoff (played by Elliott Gould), Livingston Dell (played by Eddie Jemison), Virgil Malloy (played by Casey Affleck), Turk Malloy (played by Scott Caan), Yen (played by Shaobo Qin whose only acting roles have been in this movie series), Saul Bloom (played by the late Carl Reiner), Linus Caldwell (played by Matt Damon most famous for being in MYSTIC PIZZA) and Basher Tarr (played by Don Cheadle). Terry Benedict owns all 3 casino’s and he’s installed some of the greatest security the world has ever known, it’s so awesome in fact that I don’t think they can pull it off. End of review. Just kidding…
This movie starts off a bit slow and is a little hard to follow. Danny’s motivation for wanting to steal $150 million dollars from these 3 casinos isn’t clear for quite some time. Having said that, it does a great job of introducing the characters one by one and we even get a few cameos from other stars like Joshua Jackson (most famous for being in MUPPETS FROM SPACE), among others. Julia Roberts plays Tess Ocean, Danny’s wife in this. You probably know Julia Roberts from being one of the girls in the band in the movie SATISFACTION. The two don’t really get along which is aggravated by who she’s dating now, and that actually adds to making Danny’s character more likable. I don’t want to give away why if you haven’t even seen this. Probably my favorite character in this is Saul.
Even though this is a crime thriller of sorts and it does have its tense subject matter with some suspense, it’s extremely well-crafted fun. I don’t want to say this movie is "roll on the floor" funny, but it’s lightheartedness with hints of humor really embraces the audience and invites them into a situation that normally would be humorless and gritty. I found myself liking almost every character on screen because they are likable, which is pretty rare.
If I have any complaints, it’s that some of the writing feels slightly overcomplicated in parts where it doesn’t need to be and not detailed enough when it comes to how the heist is going to work. Having said that, these are minor issues and don’t detract from how good this movie is. I normally don’t find agreement with other publications, but back in 2008 in EMPIRE magazine, OCEANS ELEVEN made the top 500 movies of all-time list. As technology changes the odds of actually breaking into a real casino and stealing anything of value is probably going to be near impossible, but this film to date has aged pretty well and definitely hasn’t lost its appeal.
I give OCEANS ELEVEN a 6 out of 7. Not even Matt Damon (who I can’t stand) could ruin this. This is another one of those movies I watch probably at least once a year.
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